Electron Emission from Microfabricated Porous Silicon Carbide Structures: Advancing a NIST-Patented Technology

A decade ago, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology invented an electron field emitter with the potential to disrupt the state of the art of imaging and communications systems. NIST showed that these devices, comprising nanoporous silicon carbide structures of various hierarchical shapes, can emit electrons from their surfaces purely by application of an electric field. Historically, and to this day in industry, electrons are extracted from a hot filament, which produces an electron vapor that can then be accelerated by an electric field. Conversely, the NIST sources yielded “cold” electrons, which, in response to that very same accelerating field, formed vacuum electron currents akin to those produced by thermal sources, but without a heating element. This SBIR proposal seeks to evaluate the business case for commercialization of the NIST devices, and to pursue research to determine the utility of known lithography methods to assist scale-up of the NIST technology. By the end of Phase I, the Principal Investigator at Julia Jean, LLC will cooperate with NIST scientists and facilities to carry out this research, and devise an extended development plan for Phase II, based on the economic and technical feasibility studies of Phase I.